Eugene Richards

Fellow

Eugene Richards is an award-winning photographer, writer, and documentary filmmaker who is best known for his books and photographic essays on such diverse topics as breast cancer, drug addiction, poverty, AIDS and aging in America. He is the author of 13 books, the most recent being The Fat Baby (Phaidon, 2004).

The Blue Room (Phaidon), a collection of his photographs on abandoned houses of the West and the Midwest, as well as A Procession of Them (University of Texas), which confronts the plight of the institutionalized mentally disabled, will be published in the fall. His current book project, War Is Personal (University of Texas, spring 2009), is a documentation in words and pictures of the effects of the Iraq War on the lives of a dozen individuals.

Born in Dorchester, Massachusetts, Richards graduated college with a degree in English and journalism, then studied photography for one year with Minor White. In 1968, he joined VISTA, Volunteers in Service to America, a federal program established as an arm of the so-called "War on Poverty." A year and a half later, he helped found a social service organization and a community newspaper, Many Voices, which reported on black political action as well as the Ku Klux Klan. Photographs he made during these years were published in his first book, Few Comforts or Surprises: The Arkansas Delta.

Among numerous honors, Richards has received a Guggenheim Fellowship, National Endowment for the Arts grants, the W. Eugene Smith Memorial Award, the Leica Oskar Barnack Award, Olivier Rebbot Awards from the Overseas Press Club, Cannon Photo Essayist Awards and the Robert F. Kennedy Lifetime Achievement Journalism Award for coverage of the disadvantaged.

Selected Articles and Photographs:

The Sergeant Lost Within
Photographs | The New York Times Magazine | May 25, 2008

The Emptied Prairie
Photo Essay | National Geographic | January 2008

Wounded Battalion
Photographs | Esquire | November 20, 2007

The boys from Iraq
Photographs | Guardian | July 12, 2007

War is Personal: Mona Parsons/Age 52/Mt. Vernon, Ohio
Text and Photographs | The Nation | June 21, 2006

War is Personal: Carlos Arredondo/Age 45/Roslindale, Massachusetts
Text and Photographs | The Nation | April 20, 2006

War is Personal: Tomas Young/Age 26/Kansas City, Missouri
Text and Photographs | The Nation | March 9, 2006

After Life
Photographs | The New York Times Magazine | September 25, 2005

Films:

Nothing Short of a Miracle (2006)

War Is Personal (2005)

A Procession of Them (2004)

The run-on of time (2003)

Stepping Through the Ashes
Eugene Richards' photographs of the aftermath of September 11, 2001, mixed with interviews of survivors and eye-witness accounts.

but, the day came (2000)
This 27-minute documentary, which chronicles the passage of a 92-year-old farmer into a nursing home, received the Jury Award for Best Short Film at the Full Frame Documentary Film Festival, the Eastman Kodak Cinematography Award and the Best Documentary Award at the Hope Film Festival. It premiered in Ireland at the Doclands Documentary Film Festival during the exhibition.

Books:

Few Comforts Or Suprises: The Arkansas Delta (1973)

Dorchester Days (First Edition, 1978)

50 Hours (1983)

Exploding into Life (1986)
Nikon Book Of The Year Award

Below The Line: Living Poor In America (1987)
ICP Infinity Award For Photojournalism

The Knife and Gun Club (First Edition, 1989)
Award of Excellence from The College of Emergency Physicians

Cocaine True, Cocaine Blue (1994)
Kraszna-Krausz Award for Photographic Innovation

Americans We (1994)
ICP Infinity award for Best Photographic Book

The Knife And Gun Club (Second Edition, 1995)

Photo Poche 68 (1997)

Dorchester Days (Second Edition, 2000)

Eugene Richards 55 (2001)

Stepping Through The Ashes (2002)
Golden Light Photography Award for Best Collaboration

The Fat Baby (2004)

Upcoming Books:

The Blue Room (Phaidon, fall 2008)

A Procession of Them (University of Texas, fall 2008)

War is Personal (University of Texas, spring 2009)

For more information on Eugene Richards, visit his website.